Exploration and production in Russia’s Arctic offshore: Key technology development areas

This paper aims to identify the key priority upstream technologies which would presumably become central for Arctic oil and gas development in Russia. It was found that any E&P success appears mainly driven by the stat-of-the-art in the technology area, such as offshore installation ice protection ice conditions management. Difficulties with environmental and upstream facility management appear to impose serious constraints here. At the same time, existing technologies regarding oil and gas pipelining, logistics, and subsea production facility arrangements are reported to strongly move ahead and are believed to sustain the continued offshore development. Numerous field-tested subsea technologies are presently available for most Arctic fields and appear to have no alternatives for the short term.